1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image generation apparatus, an image file generation method, an image verification apparatus, an image verification method and the like, capable of verifying whether addition information of an image data was falsified.
2. Related Background Art
Digital cameras are in practical use nowadays to digitalize an optical image of a subject and store it.
Although image data photographed with a digital camera can be easily loaded in a personal computer, there is a problem that the image data can also be falsified easily on the personal computer. Reliability of image data photographed with a digital camera is therefore lower than that of a silver salt photograph, resulting in an insufficient admissibility. To avoid this, a digital camera system has recently been proposed which has the function of adding a digital signature to image data photographed with a digital camera. Conventional digital camera systems are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,294 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-200730.
A conventional digital camera system is, however, associated with a problem that a digital signature or Message Authentication Codes (MAC) of image data cannot be created independently from a digital signature or MAC of addition information of image data. It is therefore impossible to independently verify whether image data was falsified and whether addition information was falsified. A user cannot distinguish among whether image data was falsified, whether addition information of image data was falsified, and whether the image data and addition information were falsified.